DAYTON–Columbia Pulp, LLC will idle operations of North America's first tree-free pulp mill as of February 18, 2022, an action that will affect approximately 80 employees who work primarily in its headquarters in Dayton and its plant located at Lyons Ferry in northern Columbia County.

"We are idling the plant," said Terry Ryan, Columbia Pulp's Interim CEO told the Dayton Chronicle this week. "It's not a closure.

"I can't say a date we'll come out of the idle," he continued. "It'll probably take four to six months. It's tough to say when."

Ryan said that the first-of-its-kind plant and its technology "has not been without challenges. And while this is normal for a company at the forefront in developing a product like this, to continue on we must make these hard choices while we evaluate our options going forward."

"We know the market is there long-term," Ryan said, "we're going to take a step back and evaluate how best to exploit that market."

The majority of the plant production is expected to pause in second quarter with a small staff that will remain to handle daily business operations, the Columbia Pulp release indicated. Support will be provided to employees in terms of transition and employee assistance.

With the reduced number of employees, output of the plant will not be large production orders, Ryan said, but rather the limited staff will work on smaller orders to develop processes to meet end-user's needs. "Smaller orders we'll work on as we can, in the idle state," Ryan said.

"We having lots of customer engagement and a lot of trial processes with customers," he said.

More than a decade ago, Columbia Pulp was founded with a vision to utilize wheat straw to create an alternative fiber pulp that would leverage opportunities for paper and packaging applications while driving significant improvements in sustainability, both locally and for its customers, the news release stated.

"We are acutely aware that this has wide-reaching impacts on many people–our valued employees and their families, farm suppliers, and the communities in which we operate," Ryan said. "The Columbia Pulp team is talented and dedicated, and we are committed to assisting them through this transition.

"We know that the work of all of our employees helped pave the way for an alternative fiber option in our target markets and will have a lasting impact," he said. "We believe in this vision and what it means for the future of sustainability in the pulp and paper industry."

The plant, which has the capability to daily process 100 tons of small-grains straw into pulp for further processing by paper-industry manufacturers, was shut down in April, 2020, by Governor Jay Inslee's "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" emergency order. It restarted operations in June, 2021.

Construction of the $184 million pioneering plant, based on a proprietary process developed by William McKean, Ph.D. and Mark Lewis, started in the fall of 2017 at a site west of Starbuck, near Lyons Ferry.

The corporate offices are in the former Columbia REA building at 164 E. Main St. in Dayton.